Defiance
by Pythonmelon
Summary: Demongo is recovering from his crushing defeat and punichment by Aku, and preparing for all-out war
1. Chapter 1

Aku pulled himself back in the monumental chair that commanded attention in the middle of his main camber. Despite the problems at hand, a sort of sublime and ecstatic peace dropped over him. It was always like this when the cursed samurai was asleep. When you considered it, as Aku often did, the epic fight between them was futile. Samurai Jack was a mere mortal simply possessing great skill. What upped the stakes so dangerously was that sword he kept so close at hand and handled so finely.

The ruler of darkness felt no need to launch a sneak attack on his enemy. It would be a cheap shot, no matter how beneficial. At least let the warrior be awake when he perished. Looking away from the portal, Aku stared transfixedly into the pits of his unearthly domain. There, in the darkness which the bottom of was hidden from even its owners eyes, dwelled among the finest of his servants. Covering the floors in at least a few places down there were also the remains of his dead, there to furnish the place and feed the beasts below. They were failures, desolate of use.

While there was a little empathy born from fear for them, there was not enough sympathy to justify it. The ruler looked away, cutting his dead- thought stare, indifferent of the swallowing darkness again. He studied the phosphorescent fiery orange-red stone that made up his only decor. The lives he had been puzzling over were gone, anyhow. It was best to leave things as they were, in the past.

Deep in the pits of Aku's lair an entity heaved a deep, pained sigh. As if part of the wall was collapsing an inky black skeletal shape detached itself from the darkness. Demongo dropped to his knees weakly. In the black-on-black world the only thing that betrayed his presence was a pair of glowing blue eyes. The demon attempted to stand but shuddered and fell over again. He was not dead or near death, of course. The collector of souls was eternal and Aku was a fool for thinking otherwise. But he was in a weakened state.

Demongo's back arched and he vomited a small raw pool of tar onto the floor. He may not be dead but this wounded torture was far worse than any execution Aku could deal out. He must escape or risk eventually being found at his weakest, cowering down here.

Running his long, blue tongue across the tips of his fangs hungrily, Demongo hacked again. Somewhere in the bleak fiery distance there was a glimmer of vitality. The inky creature snapped his head forward suddenly in the direction of this tiny flash of light. He fell forward again, cracking his head painfully against one of the floors rocky protrusions. This was ridiculous, trying to move much at all. He had none of the essences that he had worked so hard to collect. Without that power he couldn't even keep his hair burning.

But such a vast place as this pit was, deep within the earth, it must contain some sort of life. In fact Demongo _knew_ there was life in this abyss. He had dwelled welcome here once, after all. There were thousands upon thousands of Aku's most powerful warriors from which he could take his pick. He was practically sitting at a buffet.

Unlike a buffet, though, he had to get dinner before dessert. Demongo tried and finally succeeded in dragging himself behind a flame- shaped rock spire and managed to sit up. He propped himself against it. His features were lined and tired. Yes, he would have to start small. Demongo sat in wait for something, anything he could trap the essence of. Success was patience, patience was escape.

Elia padded contentedly in the direction of the commotion. From beneath her hood one fluorescent green eye glowed. A shock of wiry white hair slipped out onto her face and she tried without success to blow it back into place. In exasperation she passed one of her long staffs to another pink hand and brushed the hair away.

She was going deeper into Aku's dwelling because, for a second, she had seen a flash of blue. A twinge of something like hope was coursing through her. Demongo, rest him, had been the source for her and many of the other young girls in this place crushes. After his- if you could call it that- execution they had worked to pick up a many scraps of his memory as possible. There were none to be found.

Now here she was almost two months later wandering blindly into the oblivion. Oh, what a faithful pup am I, she thought, blushing unconsciously. To be chasing after a blinking of color reminiscent of your eyes.

As she moved closer to the pit's walls an inkling of unease filled her. Someone else was definitely down here. Elia pulled her burlap cloak tighter around herself and attempted to blot out the tension with happiness. No one dared lay a badly intended finger on each other here lest they be visited by Aku. As ill-tempered as he was, no one crossed him. Except for the samurai.

She snickered nervously at the thought of Jack. He was an excellent fighter to be able to avoid Aku for so long. But, she more sourly remembered, how severely he had injured her. Elia had been sent out to fight him and came back missing one of her four arms. Having narrowly escaped but dealing a fair amount of damage to the samurai, she was given welcome to stay.

Wincing with a memory of pain she passed the long staffs away again and cupped her stumpy wound. She had nursed it for months all by her lonesome. Letting go she held out the staff again and gingerly poked it into the shadows. "Anyone here?" Her voice sounded small and childish in the empty passage.

"Yes?" the voice was eager, high pitched and whiny with an accent that stressed the _S_ syllables to a point where it was comedic. He sounded weak, barely poking his head from behind a rock to signal his presence.

"Demongo!" Elia clapped her hand over her mouth in excitement to muffle a childish scream. She hadn't really expected to find him, and yet here they were. "Everyone said Aku killed you!" She dropped to his side, scrambling for a way to help.

The demon smiled weakly when he recognized Elia. She, along with many other girls, had followed him about affectionately before. Who could blame them? "Elia! I never thought I'd see your pretty pink face again."

She blushed and giggled, patting his knee. "You're injured." Her hand traced up his chest where the skulls had once laid thick. There were none now. He was also missing his cape, she noticed, and his hair was out.

"It's nothing a little collecting can't fix." He sighed, nodding his head back and forth.

After a moment Elia began to help him up onto his feet. "Is there anything I can do?"

Demongo doubled over but remained standing. Only his hunger for essence kept him from stumbling and hitting the floor. The girl supported him by hugging herself under his shoulder. She was small and, missing that arm, weak. Perfect. "No, no. Don't do a thing."

She felt the crook of his arm bend downward, and suddenly his sharp claws were in view. He danced them playfully up and down on her throat. Elia smiled and swallowed as the pressure increased. The girl never saw the expression of raw weakness on her captor's face. She never even had time to realize he was her captor. Because, just seconds after that playful pressure became threatening, Demongo tore his admirer's throat out with his bare hands.

Demongo collected the girl's essence in her own skull tenderly, as if he had all the time in the world. The essence was a cloudy grey fog that hung over Elia's body. He collected it easily, though. One of Demongo's many talents.

He watched the jawless skull with excitement as it filled. Hands shaking, the demon hitched it to his chest. There was an explosion of power within him. Demongo's apprehension evaporated with a sense of relative safety. And below the vitality, he felt his prisoner's emotions.

Elia was, like most of the souls he had taken for his own, surprised. There was also fear and a touch of anger. He didn't really care, personally, because it always faded into a kind of drugged tolerance after just a few days. It was simply the effect he had on them.

Feeling some strength return to his weary body brought some sensed thinking with it. Tiredly he wiped a hand across his face, smearing some of the girl's viscous blood onto one cheek. Could I, he thought, possibly regain a station beside Aku in power? It was not out of his options. But the cowardly shadow wouldn't be pleased to see him alive. He might even strike him down over and over again until the collector of souls was just a bubbling pool of tar, indefinitely alive yet helpless to rescue himself. Demongo shook the disturbing thought away distastefully. No, he could never go back to the tyrant's right side.

So escape was the only option that really didn't end in pain as far as the demon saw. That brought two points into play. Would he snake away now when no one knew of his presence yet, or would he take his fill? The latter had a chance of either being extremely beneficial or ending in anguish. Someone could squeal and alert Aku and then he would be forced to go up against an evil almost as infinite as himself.

But Aku was no longer guaranteed eternity thanks to the samurai. Yes, Demongo had failed against him too, but that was a learning experience. As far as anyone knew Jack's enchanted steel was a mere toothpick against Demongo's power. And that was good. "If I had something like that, I could take anyone I wanted." He muttered absently.

With a click of envy and stupidity he had it. He would try taking the samurai again, but not without help. Then Aku would be as good as his. Without hesitation he tossed Elia's skull to the ground. Smiling with anticipation he clapped his black hands together and opened them, finger splayed and still touching at the wrist in a way reminiscent of a moth or raven shadow puppet. From the open palms came an aimed burst of concentrated energy. The beam of yellow light jumped through the air and hit Elia's skull with a flash. Moments later there she stood, reanimated and totally healthy. "D...D...Demongo?" She stuttered in confusion.

He waved a hand dismissively. "We have work to do."


	2. Chapter 2

"Well go _on_ then." Demongo hissed into Elia's ear. The creature just on the other side of the rock they hid behind grunted but paid no heed. There were hundreds of creatures here spread over several miles, so it wasn't hard to catch someone alone. What was difficult was catching a flesh-and-blood thing. Aku relied far too much on his robots.

Being this close to her master made Elia shiver. There was no longer any attraction, any _spark_ in being here with him. She was simply an enslaved essence, nothing anymore. "It's not like it can hurt you." He whispered impatiently and nudged her a bit. She moved silently up over the rock outcropping without argument, feeling his will in her mind. The monster was roughly twenty feet tall and sat on its haunches. It had a large, thick grey head with tiny ears and beady black eyes. Its mouth was filled with rocky, rotten teeth. This thing was a pure butterball, but a good source of raw power.

Elia leapt up and jammed one of her staffs into its lower back. Cartwheel style she rolled the staff again into its bumpy neck, finally striking home by piercing one of its tiny eyes. Flicking herself across the ground with her renewed fourth arm Elia landed in a fighting position.

The beast screamed hoarsely in agony and rage. Demongo struck then, seeing his chance at that exact moment. He launched himself onto its back and straddled the creatures shoulders. The demon grabbed its ears and twisted, digging his claws deep into the sides of its head. He tore at the flesh and drew away with two fistfuls of gore. Demongo continued ripping at the creature's head until he hit bone. A skull, thick yet brittle, scraped against his claws. This was his victim's weak spot.

Elia watched in horror during the attack, whacking the beast's arms every time it reached up to remove her captor from its shoulders. She was a warrior, trained killer, but this was just brutal. The monster's face was twisting and deforming in agony. Suddenly there was an awful crack and she flinched away from a short shower of blood, bone fragments, and grey matter. Its face caved in as Demongo crushed its skull, a quick yet painful death.

The monster hit the ground with a rumbling, echoing crash. It was done. Demongo dismounted the creature's shoulders with a triumphant sigh and began his collection. This was a prize indeed, but nothing compared to what he would get.

Elia came up to him and whined from deep within her throat, bowing on one knee. "You're feeling better?"

"Yes, of course." He smiled and patted her head, leaving a smear of blood on her hood. He hooked the newest victim's skull to his chest and, with a spark, his hair came alight. The girl flinched back from the explosion of bright blue, but relaxed. He was regaining his strength, and the skulls would multiply with that.

They walked onward towards the nucleus of the pit, where it became more like a small city than a dotted wasteland. Demongo didn't call Elia back into himself yet. She was, as his first new kill, more of a pet than anything. She tried to walk further away from him, but he pulled her back to his side via mental command.

Everything glowed unnatural orange with ;phosphorescence. Buildings had been made from the stone and blended perfectly with the landscape. Humans, machines, and countless other creatures bustled about. Demongo sank into the shadows and followed Elia quietly. "Why don't you find some of your... friends?" He asked. Elia nodded coldly and continued into the deeper streets, not that she had a choice. Only a few people threw glances at her, but most continued plotting and whatnot.

The air was sour with evil and yet somehow pleasant. To the inhabitants, that is. Elia sighed deeply, taking in what she once loved. One didn't exactly choose evil; you were either led to it or born with it. She had been born with it. End of story. The place where Demongo's admirers met was just off one of the center streets in a quiet district. It was not for the 'overrated' villainesses.

Despite that Elia was small change compared to the 'founders'. The strongest was probably Persephone, who stood six foot for and carried a battle ax like it was a lollipop. There were only a few total, maybe six with Elia, but they pretty much made up the fem population of this district of the city.

But they were moving on. Almost everyone had given up on him ever returning and abandoned him. That's all it was, a fun obsession. Elia sniffed indignantly, her black nose ruffling. They would rue the day.

Here was the street, and she turned into the building's walk. Elia started to press a call button to tell Persephone to let her in, but Demongo rose up. "I want to do it." He smiled childishly. She nodded and backed off, letting him press the button. A hopeful Persephone slid a little window open on the door and smiled, gasping at his appearance on her doorstep.

"Let me in, Persephone." He smiled, showing off his fangs.

Elia watched with mild interest as the woman practically melted. "Oh! Everyone else is here actually. Come in!" She unlocked several deadbolts on the door. Elia slunk in behind him, wondering how bad the carnage would be.

The five girls surrounded them both with questions. Elia never let on that she had been collected, because she couldn't. Instead of attacking instantly Demongo quietly stood by and let them shower him with school girl style love. It was good for one's self esteem.

He smiled, nodded, and answered an occasional question when a word could be fit in edgewise. His girl was in kind stupor awe at his placid attitude. Demongo wasn't the kind of demon you expected to be calm. You just kind of assumed he would be bouncing off the walls.

Finally everyone calmed down and Elia's master stood up, hands crossed in a double fist. "Excuse me." He passed right by them and into the kitchen. The girl felt it- he wanted her in there. It was time for the attack.

"Me to." She muttered under her breath and followed him. Persephone gave her a little jealous glare, but she didn't notice.

"Should I use him?" Demongo examined the creature's skull. He wasn't exactly asking her, but needed someone to direct his thoughts at. "Elia?"

Elia glanced upward, naturally begrudging. "It will make a lot of noise and destruction." She said calmly. "We should leave or do it ourselves."

"_I _will do it _myself_." He corrected. She frowned. "Smile, Elia. It's destroying my mood." He smirked. She tried a little harder and got a cracked grin. The demon snickered. "Good enough."

They shuffled through a few kitchen drawers and Elia came up with a set of knives. She was an expert thrower. "Excellent." He purred a little. Elia walked back out into the living room with one knife in each hand.

"Elia-" One girl, a big Ox-like thing, asked. She didn't finish because her friend lunged animally and buried one knife into her thick neck. Blood spurted like a high pressure jet when the girl removed it and leapt at someone else. Demongo walked out of the kitchen and carved up the girl in front of him with a tearing strike. Another singular blow and Persephone was down before she knew what happened. Blood spattered the walls and carpet. Elia and Demongo were both covered in it.

The entire five-victim massacre took all of three minutes. Elia stood, gasping needily at the air, and looked over the carnage distastefully. She didn't like it. Blood stained the carpet, which was littered with unrecognizable chunks of flesh. The ox girl, at least from the neck up, was a sinewy mess. All of Persephone's beauty was gone and she was simply a twisted and terrified doll that had been heaved across the room. She looked drowned, red hair splayed around her headdress. Elia turned away, sickened by the gore.

Demongo glanced up from his work and gave Elia a look of enclosed sympathy. "There are cleaner ways to collect." He frowned. "But I'm not strong enough yet."

"When _will_ you be stronger?" She asked, seething.

He master snickered. "If you expect an apology, you won't get one." He went back to work. "This is simply the less cuddly side of my work. You of all people should know that."

She frowned- he was right. Until a less grisly method could be used, they had to murder his souls by hand. "Yes. I suppose I'm not used to killing in such a…" She searched for the word.

"Gruesome?" He offered. A little of that sadistic bounce was returning to his attitude.

"Yes, gruesome, way." She frowned again. "I was more of a bloodless snap of the neck person."

"I know." He stood up, finished with the girl's essences. Five more occupants in his little world.

"I wonder how they'll take it." Elia touched her fingers to her lips gently, trying not to leave a bloodstain she would taste later.

"Does it matter?" He asked, fluttering his returned cape around himself.

"No, I suppose not." She looked at her feet calmly.


	3. Chapter 3

"I think we're ready for departure." Demongo took his cloak back from Elia. He had showered and felt refreshed. He was toweling off his face, hair flickering. Elia wondered if their skulls ever got flooded. The idea was fleeting, but enough to make her smile a little. "Glad to get back into the sunlight?" He asked.

"Uh…" She shook her head, knocking the thought away. "Yes, it would be nice to have natural light again."

"Fair enough." He nodded his head back and forth. "This 'Pit of Hate' gets old."

"Mhm." She grunted, watching him latched the cape around his neck. They both knew that they would feel a bit out of place up there but kept quiet.

The plan for escape was simple. Elia would be stored in him again and they would sneak out in the shadows. If anyone saw them, Aku's shadow ninjas in particular, they would be killed and collected. "Ninja guards are easy." Demongo had once said in their short interviews. "Pure essence in a cloth wrapper; I smack them off the walls for fun sometimes."

The girl fretted needlessly about going back inside. She didn't know if she could communicate with the others, but knew it was vast. And lonely. If there was any one thing Elia hated, he was being lonely. Before, just a few hours ago, she remembered a bit sadly, she had been unconscious for the few minutes after he took her for his own. That didn't count. She didn't know what it was like, but soon would.

With a clipped snap of his fingers Elia dispersed into a cloud of grayish fog. The cloud swirled and made a beeline stream towards her skull and entered through the eye.

Elia felt herself suddenly become lighter, more of a presence in anything, and shoot through the air. She was guided in the direction of Demongo's chest and flew into a tunnel of darkness. The dark lasted only a second, though, and she found herself reforming inside a gigantic cavern. Before she could go anywhere, a ring of blue flame appeared around her.

Everyone else had awakened and were floating in the everwhere – that's what they called it – with similar rings of flame. The ox-like girl, Dusk, gave her drugged look of hatred. Persephone did the same, and the other three girls joined in. Elia sighed silently. All words were lost in the everwhere, at least they knew that.

Demongo slithered under the door into the shadows. He tried to hide himself to the best of his ability and pretty much succeeded. Even if anyone actually saw him it wouldn't be a problem. It was undecided whether or not he was unwelcome, because everyone thought he was dead.

A few people glanced his way and shuffled on, uncaring. Luckily it was not strange for a blue eyed demon to sink around and between shadows in the city. The _problem_ was avoiding Aku. But, the Demon reasoned with himself, the fool never really came down here.

Demongo continued until he reached the end of the Great Wall, where it rose in pillars upwards toward the top of the tower. No one knew where they would appear in the outside world. Aku's towers moved from place to place, changing constantly. This was simply for the Shogun of sorrow's personal enjoyment.

Working out a plan in his head silently, Demongo kept up and moved up the wall between cracks, invisible. How would he get to the samurai? Approaching him directly, as he had done before, was a definite no. He could not change shape except for 'melting' so that was no good. The demon cursed. Aku's shape shifting ability was one to be envied. But even if he could shape shift, you could always tell who Aku was. Demongo wanted a more solid upper hand. Jack was obviously more comfortable around other humans. They were less prone to join evil's side. And that was it! A simple yet difficult solution. Demongo would turn himself completely human, save for his distinctive powers. Stopping, he retreated back down the wall. There was a wizard near the most populated area's edge just a few miles back. He could do the job.

At the wizard's front door Demongo decided to make one of those entrances he loved so much. Swinging the door open with a gust of wind, he snaked into the darkened house. Slamming the door so it looked like it happened on its own; he rose out of nothing in the living room center. The house was dark – no one was home, it appeared.

"Aw." Demongo slumped over, disappointed that no one had seen his dramatic appearance. "Hello?" He called into the house. Taking careful steps on the creaky wooden floor, he snuck down the hall. "Anyone home?" Finally he came to a bedroom with the door cracked open.

"What do you want?" The cranky old man swung open the door, irritated. He had a fistful of little purple pills and dropped them at the sight of Demongo. He fell to his knees and started to pick them up, muttering angrily. "How does he always find me?! I'm a thousand years old, I should get some compensation."

Demongo stood, unimpressed and surprised. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Aren't you here to collect my essence or something? Don't think I don't know Aku's right-hand man when I see him." The old Wizard stood up again, counting his pills.

"Actually, yes, I am. But first I need a favor – can you turn me into human?" He rephrased it. "Can you make me human temporarily, personal preference being if I could control it?"

The man's eyes widened. He frowned disagreeably. "All I want to do is take these pills and be done with my miserable life." He crossed his arms. "But now you're here, so I don't have a choice in helping you at all."

"That's right." Demongo snickered.

"Then let me see what I have." He turned, Robe flapping, and walked across the room. He shuffled through a few drawers grumpily. "Do you want your powers intact at all times?"

"Of course." The demon stood beside him and shadowy house.

Finally the man came up with small black and silver ring of entwined metals. "This should do you good."

Demongo's eyes lit up. "It's perfect. Is something simple, good for the –" He chuckled. "Dealer of Destruction." He snatched the ring and, before putting it on, tossed Elia's skull to the ground. The wizard smirked at him. "Hey, if I can access my essences while human I need a partner."

The man nodded. "Fair enough." Pointing his hand at the girl's skull he flicked a short reanimation ray it. She stood up, pulled at the collar of her cloak, and smiled a little. She hoped he wouldn't do that too often. It was dizzying.

"All right." He nodded." Let's see if this works." Elia watched curiously, a bit worried. He slipped on the ring and felt something happening almost immediately. Unfortunately he didn't have a mirror, so only Elia and the wizard saw the change.

It was hardly noticeable at first. The flames on top of his head got calmer, flickering more gently. Then it frizzed up bit by bit from the bottom of became real hair the broke up into individual strands. Eventually was a big mop of electric blue hair that sat straight up on his head. It fell onto his face evenly. "Is that it?" He felt a lock of the wiry hair.

The wizard, stroking his filthy gray beard impatiently, slapped the demon's hand. "Give it _time_, will you?" About then Demongo glanced in his hand and saw the area around during bleaching a pale flesh color. The man smirked. "_This_ part is going to hurt."

And it did. Elia looked away painfully as her master hunched over and gave an unearthly shriek of agony. He gripped his stomach under the cape and started rolling on the floor. "What's happening?!" He choked.

Examining his gnarly yellow fingernails nonchalantly, the wizard answered: "Bones. And organs. You're human on the inside too." Demongo rolled over and dug his claws the hardwood floor with the hand that still_ had _claws. His face looked hideously disfigured because one half of it had a flesh and blood ear and a nose while the other side battled receding blackness. The blue of his eyes shrank into little irises, leaving behind a field of white. Black pupils grew in the iris's centers and... That was it.

Elia rushed to his side and put a paw on his back. "Are you okay?" Helping him up, Demongo let out a hacking little cough and licked his fangs. _Bone _fangs.

"I'm fine." He managed. There was a black nylon belt lined with miniature skulls around his hips. Other than his cape, he realized, that was all he had on. Elia slapped a paw over her eye and blushed a darker shade of pink, giggling girlishly. He yanked his cape closed and flushed with embarrassment. "You!" He pointed at the wizard then, flustered, yanked his cape closed again. "This is your fault. Bring me some clothes. Something _black_." He shivered unhappily.

Elia came up and poked his cheek playfully. He glared at her. Backing off, the girl smiled. "I meant no harm. It's just that your so," she giggled again. "Beige."

He turned and frowned at the wizard. The man flinched and scurried away. "I'm beginning to think this wasn't a good idea." The demon said, feeling exposed even with his cape closed.

"Oh please. Sure it's been done, but never so well." She took another look at him and straightened the collar of his cape.

The wizard came back and with a skin tight but comfortable shirt of light black fabric and a pair of dark gray jeans and, Demongo found folded inside the jeans, a pair of underwear. "Ahem?" He cleared his throat and the two backed out of the room.

Getting dressed, the demon -turned-human adjusted his ring. It was a bit loose and slid off his finger easily. He shrugged. No big problem. "You can come in again, Elia." He buttoned his pants invited the two in again. The wizard sighed dejectedly and fingered at his poison pills. "Take them if you want to, sentimental old coot." Demongo flapped a hand. "I'll collect either way."

"The name's Seer." The old man crossed his arms. "Not sentimental old coot." But he smiled and Dry swallowed the pills. The poison was fast acting. Seer's arms twitched in stiff jerking motions just a second after he swallowed the pills. A small ring of foam formed around his cracked lips and, if it was possible, his skin got paler. Ashy gray with death and unbelievably sick looking the wizard's eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed with a wheeze.

"I hope you're happy." Demongo smirked impatiently and started collecting the essence. It was a tad more difficult, working with human hands, but easy enough. Elia watched, pleased that this was a bloodless kill. She smiled at her now human master. He caught the brief look and grinned back. "Okay, now we're ready for departure."


End file.
